Lennon blasts 'soulless' Celtic

Neil Lennon accused some of his Celtic players of "behaving like spoiled kids" following their shock 3-2 Scottish Communities League Cup final defeat by St Mirren at Hampden.

PUBLISHED: 06:44, Mon, Jan 28, 2013

Neil Lennon was far from impressed by his Celtic side [PA]

Since taking over as Buddies boss in 2010, Danny Lennon had watched his side fail to take a point or even score a goal in their eight previous games against the champions, but on an afternoon of high drama they overcame overwhelming odds to book their place in the March 17 final against Hearts.

"I am bitterly disappointed with that performance," said Hoops boss Lennon. "It was soulless, it lacked intensity, desire and will to win, all the attributes this team has shown over the last six to nine months."

He added: "That was an impersonation of a team that I know. There is not one player, maybe with the exception of Hooper, that would get pass marks today. There was a lack of discipline in our shape and play.

"I thought we were defensively awful, the decision making was poor and the there was a lack of quality in the final third. Some of them behaved like spoiled kids out there."

Saints boss Danny Lennon revealed he had prepared for his first win against Celtic by making his players watch a YouTube montage of famous Buddies victories against the Hoops which was sent to him by a fan.

He said: "What actually inspired me was that a fan had put together a lovely montage on YouTube of by previous St Mirren and Celtic games, I don't know the chap's name but he will know who he is.

"I had seen it prior to the Ross County game last week, it went way back to 1959 and showed great results like when they beat Celtic 3-0 in 1989 and through a fantastic result in 2009.

"The message behind that was to fuel the players with belief that it can be done.

"When you come into these games, you try anything, you will try something different and they didn't let us down. It was a fantastic effort from everyone. What was more pleasing was the manner in which we got the result, the players were different class."